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Express
The Express Lift Company was the oldest UK-based elevator division that belongs to General Electric Company (GEC) and based in Northampton, England. Express Lift was formed in 1917 following a merger between two major British companies; Easton Lift Company and General Electric Company. In 1930, Smith, Major & Stevens (SMS Lifts), another British lift maker, joined Express Lift. It was acquired by Otis in 1997, following a merger between Express Lifts and Evans lifts of Leicester. Express made lifts in New Zealand as early as the 1920's, or maybe even earlier! From this time through the 1970's, they were one of the most popular lift manufacturers in NZ, second only to Otis. Express began to decline in popularity in the 1980's, following the rise of Schindler and KONE. When Otis took over Express in the UK in 1997, the New Zealand division was taken over by Schindler. To this day, most Express lifts display the Schindler logo, which has been bolted over the original Express logo. When Schindler took over, they automatically got the maintenance jobs on them too. The take over of Express is largely responsible for Schindler's popularity in New Zealand today. 1920's - Cage Lifts Early Express lifts were a mere cage. These were often manually controlled, but nowadays they are all automatic. These lifts were single speed, and featured scissor gates on both the landing and in the cab. DSCN0353.JPG DSCN0354.JPG DSCN0357.JPG DSCN0355.JPG DSCN0356.JPG 1930's - Closed-in Gated Lifts Express continued to make Gated lifts in the 30's and 40's, most of these being fully enclosed cabs and shafts. These lifts had a solid landing door, but still used a scissor gate inside. These lifts were often single speed. DSCN1606.JPG DSCN1608.JPG DSCN1609.JPG DSCN1611.JPG Gatedlift.jpg Gatedbuttons.jpg DSCN1613.JPG DSCN1612.JPG DSCN1614.JPG DSCN1616.JPG 1950's? - Automatic Lifts Express began making fully automated lifts as standard sometime around the 1950's. These lifts were very basic, featuring basic buttons and often no floor indicators. Some were even still single speed! These lifts continued to be mad into the 1960's, where the designed were updated with items such as floor indicators and leveling also became standard. Bluelift.jpg bluebuttons.jpg Motororrom.jpg YellowCabin.png Buttonson craplift.png Late 60's-70's - Light-up buttons. So far, all Express lifts have used the traditional 1st Generation Oval buttons. Sometime around the late 60's, Express modified the 1st generation buttons to include an integral lamp, which allowed the buttons to light up. Examples of this are VERY rare. Carslightup.jpg callbuttons.jpg Car indicator.jpg Carbuttons.jpg Litupseven.png buttonsislitup.png Doorbuttonlit.png Uparrow.jpg DSCN1620.JPG DSCN1617.JPG DSCN1619.JPG DSCN1622.JPG 70's-80's - Second Generation Express updated their design with new features. Leveling and Floor indicators were standard, and their traction lifts were generally much faster too. Meanwhile, their hydraulic lifts were becoming more popular for low-rise installations. Express re-designed the buttons to a new American-style design, in which the entire surface of the buttons lit up. These were made in both the traditional Oval shape, but were also made in a square shape too. Roundlift.jpg Ovalunlit.jpg Ovallit.jpg Ovalpanel.jpg Ovalcarbuttonslitup.png Roundindicator.jpg Ovalinternalindicator.png Squarecars.jpg squareindicator.jpg SquareClassic.jpg Squareunlit.jpg squarelit.jpg squarecab.jpg 80's-90's - Third Generation The very last designs of express lifts brought new changes that allowed them to move into the 80's and 90's. The fixtures were re-designed to replace lamps with LED's. Some of these new buttons were simply the old square design modified with an LED, while other lifts used a completely new oval design. Express also began to use LED dot-matrix and LED Segment floor indicators. Most lifts kept the traditional bell, while some later models used digital chimes. DoorsOut.jpg CallButtonExp.jpg CarButtons.jpg ExternalDisplay.jpg IndicatorInside.jpg Ovalcars.jpg OvalHydro.jpg ovalunlit80.jpg ovalindicator.jpg carpanelbuttons.jpg internaldotmatirx.jpg inthelift.jpg carpetcabin.jpg